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Nakshatra 25 of 27

Purva Bhadrapadaపూర్వాభాద్ర

The fire of transformation — asceticism with an edge.

Ruling planet
Jupiter
Deity
Aja Ekapada, the one-footed goat, a form of Rudra
Symbol
The front legs of a funeral cot, a two-faced man
Gana
Manushya (human)
Nature
Ugra — fierce
Sidereal span
Kumbha 20° 00′ – Meena 3° 20′

About Purva Bhadrapada

Purva Bhadrapada is the most austere nakshatra in the zodiac. Its deity is Aja Ekapada, a fierce one-footed form associated with the pillar of fire, and its symbol — the front of a funeral cot — points directly at mortality. The nakshatra governs asceticism, radical renunciation, and the two-facedness of a person who lives in this world while looking at another. It is intense, visionary and not comfortable.

What it traditionally favours

Austerity and fasting, funeral rites, occult study, and any act of deliberate renunciation.

The four padas

Every nakshatra is divided into four quarters called padas, each three degrees twenty minutes wide. The pada refines the reading: two people born under the same nakshatra but in different padas are held to differ meaningfully, because each pada falls in a different navamsa and so carries a different sub-influence.

The pada also decides the first syllable of a child's name. Where the moon stood at birth gives the nakshatra; which quarter of it gives the syllable. The four syllables below are in pada order — a child born in the first pada takes the first, and so on. This is the naming convention used at namakaranam across most of southern India.

  1. 1Se20° 00′
  2. 2So23° 20′
  3. 3Da26° 40′
  4. 4Di30° 00′